JANE AUSTEN and THE ROYAL NAVY

1787 portrait of Admiral Edmund Afflech.

Jane Austen knew a lot about the Royal Navy of her time. Her novel Persuasion, is often referred to as her naval novel because of the three key characters Captain Wentworth, Captain Harville and Captain Benwick. There is also of course Captain Wentworth's sister who is the wife of Admiral Croft. The Royal navy pervades the novel. Jane also had personal experience with two of her brothers Francis and Charles becoming Post Captains and later in their carreers , Admirals

 Jane Austen began writing her novel, Persuasion, in 1815. 

“ Captain Wentworth, after being unseen and unheard of at Uppercross for two whole days, appeared again among them to justify himself by a relation of what had kept him away.

A letter from his friend,Captain Harville, having found him out at last, had brought intelligence of Captain Harville’s being settled with his family at Lyme for the winter.” 

Captain Benwick, also an acquainatance of Captain Wentworth, was  staying with the Harvilles at Lyme.

Our three captains would have been in action during the years previously to Jane writing Persuasion.

The British were in many Naval engagements in 1813. They were blockading the American coast .Foremost amongst the the actions were:

April 3rd battle of Rappahannock River in Virginia.

Battle of York April 27th

Battle of Fort George May25th-27th

Action off James Island may28th

Battle of Sacketts Harbor May28th-29th

The capture of USS Chesapeake off Boston

Action off Charles harbour July 14th 1813.

In 1814 there was the battle of Lake Champlain in the North American war of 1812

“Captain Harville had never been in good health since a severe wound he had received two years before (rendering him lame)  and Captain Wentworth’s anxiety to see him had determined him to go immediately to Lyme.”

We never hear what action Captain Harville was engaged in. Perhaps captains Wentworth and Benwick were also engaged in one or some of those actions listed above? They appear to be a band of brothers and have a very close friendship probably forged in the heat of battles and training and the patronage system. Patrionage was the way Royal Naval promotions worked in the 18th century.

As well as her fictional Royal Naval Officers Jane had two brothers, Francis and Charles, who were also in the Royal Navy and rose through the ranks from Midshipmen to Admirals at the end of their long careers. Then of course there were the wives.  Captain Harvilles wife was called Mary. By the end of the novel Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth marry and  Captain Benwick marries Louisa Musgrove. The wives of 18th century Royal Naval Officers wives have been termed, "Shore Wives."

CAPTAIN WENTWORTH’S WOUND

We can wonder what Captain Wentworth's wound may have been that rendered him lame. 

HMS VICTORY Portsmouth harbour.

When I was a child,  at the age of nine, my Mum and Dad took myself and my brother Michael, nineteen miles along the coast from Southampton where we lived, to Portsmouth to visit  HMS Victory, Nelsons flag ship at the Battle of Trafalgar (21st October 1805.)

We were mesmerized by the sight of The Victory, an 18th century 104 gun first rate ship of the line. There were two things that have aways stayed with me about the Victory from that first visit and I have visited it a number of times since over the years. Firstly the surgeons cabin with  his amputation instruments laid out was quite a shocking place to be. It was both shocking and thrilling to learn how fast an arm or leg could be amputated, how the amputation  was performed and the effects on the patient. The second thing that always has stuck with me was a tour of the gun decks with all their massive cannons lined up with muzzles sticking out of the gun ports. Each cannon is roped down with pulleys and tied to anchor points in the deck. Our guide told us what this gun deck would have been like when in action. Each gun would have had a crew. Each gun crew member would have bandaged their heads and arms and torsos with thick linen bindings. You might wonder why the bindings. When an 18th century cannon is fired at an opposing ship it is rare for a cannon ball, a heavy round lump of iron, to pierce and enter the opposing ship. What it did do, travelling at the speed of sound, yes that fact wowed me too, was to smash into the thick wooden side of a ship. The thick oak planks would splinter and send large pieces of sharp wood exploding  inside of the gun deck. With sometimes forty or fifty of these cannon balls hitting the side of a ship at the same time in a broadside, the whole space inside the gundecks would have been filled with flying shards and splinters. The splinters of wood caused catastrophic injuries to the gun crews. Hence the bandage protection.

Somehow  I cannot imagine Captain Harville being on a gundeck during a battle. The ships captain would have been directing his ships action from on the top deck. On the Victory there is a small brass plaque screwed into the upper deck. It marks the spot where Nelson received his fatal wound from a French sniper high in the rigging of the ship The Victory was attacking. The bullet  was fired from a high angle. It entered Nelsons body from near his collar bone and passed down through his body going through his lungs and emerging near the base of his spine. If the sniper had been a fraction to one side or the other he may have hit just an arm or a leg. Could Captain Harville have been shot in a similar way, standing on the upper deck and being hit in the leg? Something to consider.

MENTAL HEALTH

Captain Wentworth

“…in a small house near the foot of an old pier of unknown date, were the Harvilles settled.”

“ (Capt. Benwick) ..had been engaged to Captain Harvilles sister and was now mourning her loss. They had been a year or two waiting for fortune and promotion. Fortune came, his prize money as lieutenant being great,-promotion too at last; but Fanny Harville did not live to know it, she had died the preceding summer while he was at sea. Captain Wentworth believed it impossible for man to be more attached to woman than poor Benwick had been to Fanny Harville, or to be more deeply afflicted under the dreadful change.”

I think this is a strange introduction to another human being. Captain Benwick is obviously suffering the death of his fiance. But even Anne Elliot seems to give him short shift ,”get over it” she thinks. He’s obviously a young man who has expectations of marriage now he has obtained some wealth through the prize money he has gained from attacking and capturing enemy ships. That is what prize money means. The morality of that is questionable. By defeating and perhaps killing an adversary he has improved his own lifes prospects. Survival of the fittest comes to mind. But has he dreamed too much? Are his expectations based on what he thinks society owes him rather than a true deep relationship with Fanny Harville? Is he really mourning what he thought was love? He thought he had it all, promotion, prize money, marriage. Is it all in his head?The other thing, and Anne notices this , his overly emotional reaction to the things not quite going his way. He couldn’t have known Fanny Harville that well. He was at sea all the time setting himself up for life and Fanny Harville was merely a piece in that structure.

Were our three capatains suffering post traumatic stress? Look at the way they live.

…”they all went indoors with their new friends, and found rooms so small as none but those who invite from the heart could think capable of accommodating so many.”

“Captain Harville was no reader; but he had contrived excellent accommodations, and fashioned very pretty shelves, for a tolerable collection of well bound volumes, the property of Captain Benwick.”

“…he drew, he varnished, he carpentered, he glued, he made toys for the children, he fashioned new netting-needles and pins with improvements; and if every thing else was done, sat down to his large fising net at one corner of the room.”

Those small rooms are reminiscent of the officers cabins onboard a man of war. Captain Harville, Captain Benwick and Mrs Harville all live in a small confined cottage together. And those hobbies of Captain Harville; putting up shelves, carpentry, making fishing nets. Are these preoccupations of a Royal Naval Captain or are they a means to counter post traumatic stress? Captain Harvilles severe wound could all lead to that assumption.

Even without being in a sea battle could the life and training of a naval sea captain cause psychological disorders? The punishment regime carried out at sea was severe. It is not only the receiver of punishment such as whipping who is damaged. The giver of such punishments must suffer psychologically too. It was a hard regime aboard ship and our three captains were trained or forced to carry out that regime. From what we as a reader can tell of the personalities of the three captains they seem gentle, self reflective, kind people. Could these three really command with full authority and strict discipline the crew of a Royal Naval battleship? I struggle to see that they could, any of them.

A lot has been written about Jane’s brother Francis as a pious man. A letter from his father George Austen to his son Francis early in his carreer promotes a Christian approach to life. Francis himself was known for his sincere Christian practice of prayer aboard his ship.But how much was religion a psychological support to get him through a strict education at the naval academy to begin with, the dangers of engaging in battle at sea and the strict discipline he must have had to keep among his crews. The mental and psychological pressure must have been immense. Was religion a psychological crutch for him to get through this sort of life? 

A  definition for Post traumatic stress and other anxiety problems form the National Health Service  is:

Anxiety is a feeling of unease, such as worry or fear, that can be mild or severe.

Everyone has feelings of anxiety at some point in their life. For example, you may feel worried and anxious about sitting an exam, or having a medical test or job interview.

During times like these, feeling anxious can be perfectly normal.

But some people find it hard to control their worries. Their feelings of anxiety are more constant and can often affect their daily lives.

 Jane Austen only has admiration for her brothers but were they damaged? From a young age their father George Austen had sent them off to the The Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth. What sort of life was that? Was there abuse? I am sure there must have been cases. They would have had a strict regime imposed on them, the same regime they were later to impose on the men they commanded.

SHORE WIVES

Anne Elliot at Lyme.

I wonder at the relationship between Captain Harville and Mrs Harville and also that of Mary Austen and her husband Francis Austen.

 Jane had knowledge of her own two naval brothers Francis's and Charles's relationships. After quitting Bath following their fathers George Austen's death, Francis  asked his two sisters Jane and Cassandra and his mother to live with his new wife Mary, married in 1806, and their new born child in Southampton.   Francis had wanted to make sure he had a son for the purpose of inheritance. 

Life as a naval officer was precarious and fraught with danger. Mary was made, early in her marriage, a ,"shore wife." She was thrown together with her new relations who she hardly knew, to live   in a house in Castle Square Southampton while her husband was away at sea aboard HMS Canopus.Mary must have become Francis’s financial and business proxy? Was she the one in charge? We are told that Jane did not particularly like her sister in law. In all the letters from Southampton that Jane wrote to Cassandra, Mary is not often mentioned. You get the impression from Jane’s letters that her sister, her mother, her friend Martha Lloyd , who was also living with them and Jane did their own thing. Mary must have been in charge of paying the rent, ordering the food and keeping her husbands interests going.There appears to be a joint decision about getting rid of their gardener at one point. Maybe Jane and Cassandra felt as though they couldn’t say much and had to keep their mouths shut. 

So what of Mrs Harville. How were things really for her? It is also important to remember that Anne Elliot will eventually marrying Captain Wentworth, and that means she too will become a shore wife, a proxy for her husband while he is away at sea. Louisa Musgrove and Captain Benwick will  be in the same situation. One of the many side affects was  the fear of their husbands dying at sea.

The situation of Mrs Harville is interesting. Some wives usually of high ranking officers could go to sea with their husbands such as  Mrs Croft decided to do but most wanted to stay at home. They became proxies for their husbands. They paid the bills, looked after the money, made investments, educated their children, bought property and  did all the work and took on all the responsibilities  their husbands would have had. When husbands came home for any length of time there must have been a distance between partners and their children especially if they had been away for years. There must have been resentment if a wife had been a capable, successful manager of everything and then suddenly been reduced to merely, the wife, the mother with all duties taken away from her again. The shore wives were only doing what was expected and required of them by their husbands, the admiralty, and society. However, in taking on these responsibilities, they proved that women were capable of managing money, purchasing property, rearing and educating children, working the patronage system, being political activists, dealing with bureaucracy, and networking. To a modern perspective, this amount of independence and responsibility seems like it would have been welcome. However, their letters suggest that to many of these naval wives, this responsibility was instead a burden.  Nevertheless the majority of the shore wives were quite successful, financially and politically. 

Women and the Royal Navy in the 18th century.

These ordinary women who lived at a time when women did not have equality with men  were left with the responsibilty of not only running their homes but managing their husbands finances participating in the Royal Naval patronage system, a system whereby it is who you know not what you can do, gets you promotion. , using power of attorney to invest their husbands money and keeping up a correspondence with their absent husbands which strangely required  a knowledge of the worlds wind systems and a good knowledge of geography to be able to get their letters to the right place. 

In the letters written from Castle Square by JaneAusten to her sister Cassandra very little of Mary is mentioned. We get the impression, if neither sister was called away by Edward to stay at Godmersham, his house in Kent or by one of their other brothers to help with child care, they did their own thing, dealing with their own finances. We do not hear whether Francis gave his sisters and mother an allowance. They spent their time  receiving visitors, making local acquaintances and on occasion attending balls and the theatre.  Jane mentions Mary in her letters referring to her as Mrs FA. 

Wednesady 7th January 1807

..we changed it for the “Female Quixote,” ( a novel by Charlotte Lennox published in 1752)which now makes our evening amusement, to me a very high one, a I find the work quite equal to what I remeberd it. Mrs FA, to whom it is new, enjoys it as one could wish.

Thusrday 8th January 1807

“ Mrs FA has had a fainting fit lately, it came on as usual after eating a hearty dinner, but did not last long.”

Referring to her as Mrs FA sounds impersonal and almost rude if a little sarcastic. There is a feeling that Mary is merely tolerated.

Meanwhle Mary Austen, Ms FA,  dealt with her husbands business. We do not hear from Jane or Cassandra how capable Mary was but as there is nothing derogatory about her management capabilities mentioned , or rather in the letters that survive nothing bad  is said, we can only surmise things went well. 

There is evidence from the letters sent between naval officers and their wives there was a great amount of trust and pressure put upon these women. In the 18th century, it showed that women were capable of managing money, purchasing properties or in the case of Mary Austen, renting property, rearing and educating her child and working the patronage system. More about the patronage sytem and how it worked for both Francis Austen and later his younger brother Charles as far as their carreers in the navy went. 

We don’t hear how Mrs Harville performed as a shore wife.  There is a  nod towards the abilities of women in the Lyme Regis  episode. When Louisa Musgrove falls form the Cobb and strikes her head becoming unconscious it is Anne who takes charge. Captains, Wentworth, Harville and Benwick are rendered helpless. Three naval captains used to keeping strict discipline and control over a war ship and its crew do not know what to do.

During the late 18th century the Seven Years War between most of the great European powers took place between 1756 -1763, the American Revolution 1776-1783, the French revolution 1793- 1802 and the Napoleonic wars 1803 -1815. Francis Austen, for one, was kept very busy and possibly away from his wife for large periods of time. 

PATRIONAGE IN THE 18thCENTURY ROYAL NAVY

Portrait of Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) by John Francis Rigaud, 1781. 

By 1794 both of Jane Austen’s seagoing brothers, Frank and Charles were at sea.

“Charles left the naval academy in September 1794 and shipped as a Midshipman aboard HMS Daedalus, under the command of his cousin’s husband  Captain Thomas Williams.”

 There seems to be more than a hint of patrionage  where Charles is given a posiiton aboard HMS Daedulus by a family member, somebody he knew.

Frank, the elder borther meanwhile was in the sloop HMS Lark stationed in the North Sea. He seemed to be getting noweher with a distinct lack of opportunity. So his father the Reverend George Austen wrote to the families old friend Warren Hastings to get Frank moved to a larger ship with more chance of active service. The enagemnet in active service was beneficial if  dangerous. There was a chance of gaining prize money from taking enemy ships and of course with promotion up the ranks the chance of getting a larger share of the prize money available. 

The Reverend George Austen wrote,

“I… must ever acknowledge myself much your debtor, for the friendly manner in which you have undertaken our cause, and the application you have made in behlkaf of my son. As to the event of tiI am not very sanguine convinced as I am that all patrionage in the Navy restes with Lord Chatham however as ot may be of material serviceto us to have a warm Friend at the borad I am very thankful you haver procured us one in Admiral Affleck. If I mistake nothe had formerly some acquaintance with my family and  perhaps his recollection of that may be an additional motive with his regard for you toedeavur to assist us.”

It is a begging letter and I think it gives a poor reflection of how promotion worked in the Royal Navy of the time. Its who you know not what you know. But patrionage could be interpreted in a better light.The system of patrionage the navy used did actually work reasonably well. Patrionage did not always mean you were promoted because you had a relative or friend of the family who could get you promoted. Research has shown that those promoted in that way anyway could end up with a mediocre or average career. The other view of patronage was the promotion of those with ability. Admirals or those in the hierarchy often gave those with obvious abilities their patronage and helped them get promoted. This happened particularly during the time of war. Those with ability were promoted through the patironage system. This fast tracking system  only benefitted the navy.Whether Frank Austen could be regarded as somebody with ability it can be left open to speculation. He reached the position of admiral by the time he was 90 years old partly because his contempories had all died off.

In Persuasion Captain Wentworth is the brother of Admiral Crofts wife.We can imagine his career path smoothed because of this connection. We do not learn in the novel whether he was a man of naval ability or not.

When Anne goes to Lyme with Captain Wentworth and the Musgroves 

“ Captain Wentworth turned in to call on his friends ; the others walked on and he was to join them on the Cobb.

…..Louisa seemed to feel that they had parted with Captain Wentworth long when they saw him coming after them, with three companions, all well known already by description to be Captain and Mrs Harville, and a Captain Benwick who was staying with them.

Captain Benwick had some time ago been first Lieutenant of the Laconia; and the account which Captain Wentworth had given him, on his return from Lyme before; his warm praise of hm as an excellent officer, whom he had always valued highly, which must have stamped him well in the esteem of every listener, had been followed by a little history of his private life, which rendered him perfectly interesting in the eyes of all the ladies.”

If we put Captain Benwick's  personal life and  ,"the interest in the eyes of all the ladies," that he attracts to one side  part of this description reveals one officer highly regarding another officer. Presumably Captains Wentworth and Harville are senior to Captain Benwick. It seems that.Jane Austen is describing  the patronage system at work.  Captain Wentworth with his connection to the Crofts and in particlar Admiral Croft  his praise and good reports of Benwick can  promote Benwick  through a mix of who you know and also the  meritocratic side of the patrionage system. 

The Old Royal Naval Academy (1733- 1837) building Portsmouth. 

THE ROYAL NAVAL ACADEMY PORTSMOUTH

Francis Austen joined the Royal Naval academy Portsmouth in April 1786. He was twelve years old. Later ,in 1791, Janes other seafaring brother Charles joined the academy. He was thirteen years old.

In 1733, a shoreside facility was established in the dockyard for 40 recruits. A comprehensive syllabus provided theoretical and practical experience in the dockyard and at sea. Graduates of the Academy could earn two years of sea time as part of their studies, and would be able to take the lieutenant's examination after four years at sea instead of six. The Academy did not, however, achieve the objective of becoming the preferred path to becoming a naval officer; the traditional means of a sea-going "apprenticeship" remained the preferred alternative. The vast majority of the officer class was still recruited in this manner based on family ties, and patronage. Family connections, "interest" and a sincere belief in the superiority of practical experience learned on the quarterdeck ensured that the officer class favoured the traditional model. William IV summed up this view when he remarked that "there was no place superior to the quarterdeck of a British man of war for the education of a gentleman".

They also had an education in mathematics, the science of the day, navigation,negotiating skills, leadership skills and learning about foreign diplomatic relations. All of this was all part of the education.Those skills were needed by a Royal Naval Captain

There was a clear prejudice against graduates. The then rating of midshipman-by-order, or midshipman ordinary, was used specifically for graduates of the Royal Naval Academy, to distinguish them from midshipmen who had served aboard ship, who were paid more. After two years at sea, graduates of the academy were eligible to be promoted to midshipman. 

In 1806 the Academy was reconstituted as the "Royal Navy College" and in 1816 was amalgamated with the "School of Naval Architecture".

The college closed as a young officer training establishment on 30 March 1837, meaning that from that date all youngsters setting out on a naval career proceeded directly to sea. The closure of the college created a gap in officer training, and in 1857 the two-decker HMS Illustrious undertook the role of cadet training ship at Portsmouth. In 1859 she was replaced by the three-decker Britannia, which was removed to Portland in 1862 and to Dartmouth in 1863. 

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT AT SEA.

A flogging at sea on a Royal Naval ship.

Can we imagine Captains Wentworth, Harville, Benwick Charles Austen and Francis Austen overseeing a strict regime that included corporal punishment?

There are the punishment records for some of the Roayl Naval Ships of the time that can be perused. HMS Daphne" The 6th-rate frigate Daphne (twenty guns; 160 men) was built at Woolwich Dockyard in 1776. The commander was Captain St. John Chinnery, and the frigate's first commission was for the North American station. 

There is a substantial corporal punishment list for HMS Daphne. There were ninety-nine floggings in just over seven years, giving a total of 1464 lashes and an average of 14.8 lashes per flogging. Most of the floggings were of twelve lashes, but nineteen were of twenty-four; one of thirty-six; and one of forty-eight. A total of ninety-two individuals were flogged. The fifty-seven men flogged in the period 1776-1780 comprised 11.2% of all seamen and marines who passed through the ship in that period. There were eleven repeat offenders in Daphne: six men received two floggings each; four had three floggings each; and one, John Mahoney, was flogged four times over two years, receiving a total of seventy-two lashes. On each occasion Mahoney's offences were drunkenness and neglect of duty. 

The main cause of punishments was the  neglect of duty. There is not really a definition for neglect of duty but one exception is Richard Tokley who received twelve lashes on 19 February 1777 for "losing a Dutch flag overboard." The next punishable offence was caused by  alcoholic drink,  often when the ship was in port. Most of the drink-related offences in 1778 took place while Daphne was at New York. The next main offence was insolence (fou followed by quarrelling. 

I am sure jane Austen was aware of this strict punishment regime when writing her ,"Naval Captains," in Persuasion, and she was all too aware of what the life of a naval officers wife would have entailed. Like  much  of what Jane writes in her novels it can pass  the modern reader by. Somebody reading her novels in the 18th century, just after they were first published, would have known what Jane knew.

References:

Jane Austen A Family record by Deirdre Le Faye 

2008 Shore Wives: The Lives: The Lives Of British Of British Naval Officers' Wives And Widows, 1750-1815 Amy Lynn Smallwood Wright State University

Portsmouth Royal Naval Academy : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Naval_Academy

Patrionage in the Royal navy 18th Century (published 2022): Guo Xu ( University of California) Hans Joachim Zoth ( University of Zurich) 

Jane Austen;  PERSUASION: Penguin Classics (pub 1998 reissued 2003) 

THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE definition of stress including post traumatic stress.

https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/generalised-anxiety-disorder/overview/